Underdogs Diego Pavia, Vanderbilt look to keep good times rolling - ESPN

It is so hard for anyone to stand out in Nashville because everyone in Nashville is always trying so hard to stand out.

All of those off-the-bus would-be country music stars, performing in so many Broadway bars owned by so many actual stars, entertaining all those bachelorettes in pink cowboy hats and those dudes who look like they are attending a Luke Combs lookalike contest. Music City, USA is always a good time, but it also becomes very repetitive. This town aches for someone to come along and finally snap it out of its endless two-stepping loop. Say, a big-haired blond woman from Sevierville, Tennessee. Or a Man in Black on the train a-comin' from Folsom. Maybe a girl from a Christmas tree farm in eastern Pennsylvania.

Or a Bama-beating water bug of a quarterback who rolled in off a desert wind that blew in from New Mexico.

«Straight out the dirt, son,» Diego Pavia says, the 24-year-old laughing as he sits up and slaps his hand on a meeting room table in Vanderbilt football's quarterbacks meeting room. «When I first got here, you would walk down to Broadway and everyone had on Alabama stuff or Georgia stuff or the bars would just have Tennessee flags out front. Now I see a lot of Vandy V's out there. I think maybe people didn't see that coming. Just like they didn't see me coming.»

They see him now. We all do. One year ago, we saw the 6-foot QB (well, that's how tall the Vanderbilt media guide says he is, but most everyone lists him at 5-10… but, when a 5-10 sportswriter looks him in the eye, he might be 5-9… but who cares because he's also built like a BMW X4) lead the Commodores to the program's first winning season, first stint in the AP Top 25 and first bowl win since the 2013 campaign. On Oct. 5, 2024, we saw